Cecil M. Hepworth’s Rescued by Rover (1905) is a film that I show to my students every year for an exercise on the language of storytelling and making meaning through inferences. Although the film contains no dialogue and the filmmaking techniques are over 100 years old, Hepworth nevertheless produces an effective narrative film. The film’s use of editing as a narrative device was ahead of the curve, paving the way for the complex editing styles of D.W. Griffith, Abel Gance, and Sergei Eisenstein. By linking shots together and providing a repeating set of edits, the audience is easily able to track the movements of Rover, the canine protagonist, as he goes about his noble quest to rescue his family’s kidnapped child.
The conflict of the story is established early, when a beggar woman (Lindsay Gray) kidnaps a baby girl (Barbara Hepworth), stealing her stroller while her nursemaid (May Clark) is distracted. As the nursemaid confesses to the family how she lost the child, Rover (played by Hepworth’s dog, Blair) leaps out the window and heads off to rescue the child. In true Lassie fashion, Rover finds the baby, returns to his master (Cecil M. Hepworth himself), and the pair head off to confront the beggar woman and save the day. The plot is incredibly simplistic, but for an era where narrative film was still a developing art form, the ease with which Hepworth’s plot is discernable is a commendable achievement.
By 1905 standards, the film was a hit, and “Rover” has become somewhat of a household name for dogs, owing to its success. Considered among the first British narrative fiction films, and possibly the first film to feature a canine star, Rescued by Rover helped pave the way for beloved screen stars like Lassie and Rin Tin Tin. Simple and sweet, Rescued by Rover is an effective silent-era adventure tale, well worth the five-minute time investment.
Bru's Reviews 